Georgia primary 2024 results: Biden, Trump win Peach State; both clinch party nominations for president

ATLANTA - Former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden appear to be the big winners in Georgia on Tuesday, helping them both to earn their respective party’s nomination in the race for the White House.

As of 7:45 p.m., the Peach State had helped the current president secure the Democratic nomination, as Trump crossed the magic number for the Republican nomination just a few short hours later.

Neither Biden, a Democrat, nor Trump, a Republican, faces significant opposition in primary contests across Georgia. Primaries were also being held in Washington state, Mississippi and Hawaii.

Overall, Tuesday marked a crystalizing moment for a nation uneasy with its choices in 2024. 

There is no longer any doubt that the fall general election will feature a rematch between two flawed and unpopular presidents. And that rematch - the first featuring two U.S. presidents since 1912 - will almost certainly deepen the nation's searing political and cultural divides over the eight-month grind that lies ahead.

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Georgia GOP presidential primary: Trump hits magic number

Trump, whose single term in the White House transformed the Republican Party, will lead the GOP in a third consecutive presidential election. 

As of 11:11 p.m. on Tuesday, Trump capped the 1,215 delegates needed to win the Republican nomination at the party's national convention this summer. There were 161 Republican delegates at stake on Tuesday in Georgia, Mississippi, Washington state and Hawaii.

With a strong showing on Tuesday, Trump can sweep all the delegates in Georgia, Mississippi and Washington state. Hawaii allocates delegates proportionally so other candidates could win a few, even with a small share of the vote.

Not certain he would hit the mark; Trump's campaign has not planned a big victory party like it did last week when hundreds packed his Mar-a-Lago club for a Super Tuesday celebration with drinks and passed hors d'oeuvres.

He'll formally accept the nomination at the Republican National Convention in July.

Thirty-eight percent of Americans viewed Trump very or somewhat favorably in a February poll conducted by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs, compared to 41% for Biden

The 77-year-old Trump is aided by Biden's perceived weaknesses. The 81-year-old president is broadly unpopular, with deep reservations among voters in both parties about his age and ability to assume the presidency for another four years, though he is not much older than Trump. 

This year, Trump handily dispatched his Republican primary rivals, sweeping the early voting states that typically set the tone for the campaign. The field included a range of prominent Republicans such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Haley, his former U.N. ambassador, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Mike Pence, who was Trump's vice president.

At one point, DeSantis was ahead of Trump in early state polls. But he wilted in the national spotlight, failing to live up to sky-high expectations, despite $168 million in campaign and outside spending . DeSantis dropped out of the race after losing Iowa - a state he had staked his campaign on - and endorsed Trump. 

In the end, Haley was Trump's last challenger. She only won the District of Columbia and Vermont before ending her campaign. 

On the eve of Tuesday's primaries, Trump acknowledged that Biden would be the Democratic nominee, even as he unleashed a new attack on the president's age.

"I assume he's going to be the candidate," Trump said of Biden on CNBC. "I'm his only opponent other than life, life itself."

Biden becomes Democratic presumptive nominee for president after Georgia primary

Biden, too, directed much of his attention toward Trump, whom the Democratic president described as a serious threat to democracy during a campaign stop Monday night in New Hampshire. He also signaled a more robust presence on the campaign trail.

"I'm looking forward to doing more and more of these events," Biden said. Later, he joked about his age. "I know I don't look it, but I've been around a while."

Biden clinched the Democratic presidential nomination around 7:45 p.m. Tuesday with a decisive victory in swing-state Georgia on Tuesday, overcoming concerns about his leadership from within his own party as the 2024 presidential contest shifts to a general election rematch that many voters do not want.

As of 8:45 p.m. on Tuesday, he had 47 delegates over the 1,968 needed to become the presumptive nominee for president.

Biden, who took office aiming to steady a nation convulsed by the coronavirus pandemic and the Jan. 6 insurrection, became his party's presumptive nominee when he won enough delegates in Georgia. That pushed Biden's count past 1,968 for a majority of delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this August, where his nomination will be made official. Former President Donald Trump is expected to clinch the Republican nomination shortly. 

Biden, who mounted his first bid for president 37 years ago, did not face any serious Democratic challengers to his run for reelection at age 81. That's despite facing low approval ratings and a lack of voter enthusiasm for his presidency - driven in part by his age.  

Just 38% of U.S. adults approve of how Biden is handling his job as president while 61% disapprove, according to a  recent survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research

Biden and his allies are betting that over a bruising seven-and-a-half-month general election, his Democratic base, and independent voters fearful of a second Trump presidency will stand with him despite their misgivings. Their strategy to constantly highlight Trump's perceived shortcomings - combined with Trump’s plan to attack Biden in brutally personal terms - sets up an spiritless campaign that many Americans said they didn't want but will have to decide in November anyway. 

Biden has tried to frame the race as a battle for freedom, both at home and abroad. He contrasts his support for Ukraine and work to expand NATO with Trump's praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his suggestion that he would tell Russia to attack NATO allies he considers delinquent.

"We face a sobering reality," Biden said in a statement Tuesday upon clinching the nomination. "Freedom and democracy are at risk here at home in a way they have not been since the Civil War. Donald Trump is running a campaign of resentment, revenge, and retribution that threatens the very idea of America."

He added, "I believe that the American people will choose to keep us moving into the future."

Biden is pushing back on GOP-led efforts to restrict abortion rights that have also jeopardized in vitro fertilization procedures. Democrats credit the backlash to the Supreme Court overturning a federal right to abortion for electoral victories over the last two years. Trump appointed three of the justices who voted to strike down Roe v. Wade and had taken credit for the decision. 

But despite major accomplishments and what his allies see as advantages on key issues, Biden enters a rematch with Trump with vulnerabilities he can't easily fix.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.